http://prometheusatwar.com/2012/07/6th-ed-and-grey-knights-part-3-a-unit-by-unit-analysis-and-tactica/So, continuting my series from last week (Parts One and Two) I wanted to continute the discussion of how 6th edition affects Grey Knights. On to Fast Attack!
Stormraven
Upsides of 6th:
Flyers are broken (at the moment), didjya hear? Seriously, it's messed up, but there is almost nothing more important than how many Flyers you can bring in 6th edition
The Stormraven is quite tough for a flyer.
It has a lot of guns, and can be given a fair bit of variety to it's guns\
It is also a transport, with an assault ramp no less
If you're worried about it crashing with your dudes inside, they can always jump out the back
Downsides of 6th:
It's quite expensive, the most expensive flyer by far.
Using it as a transport is much harder in this edition
Dual Gunship/Transport function means you are wasting some of it's capacity now.
Total Change: +3 (but with reservations). Well, like I said, it's a big, tough, expensive flyer, and right now flyer's are broken, so there you are. That's where most of the bonuses come from. However, general flyer brokeness aside, I have reservations about it.
It's use as a transport has changed massively. I used to load Draigo and 400 pts of Paladins in the thing and basically shoot it right at the enemy. It'd get to shoot exactly 1 gun (the Multi-melta) and then the enemy would almost universally shoot it down in 1 turn. But, they used nearly their entire army to do it, and then Draigo and Pallies climbed out of the wreckage less than 12" from the enemy, nearly always a win condition.
But that won't work anymore. Yes, the Stormraven will be even harder to kill than before. But if they do kill it? All those Paladins are going to take Str 10 AP 2 hits. Draigo will survive that, but no one else will. Are you going to risk that? Yeah, it requires the enemy to get lucky with some 6's, but what seasoned player hasn't seen that? The enemy gets a 6 and then a 6 and then 6, and 1/2 your army is gone. It's statistically unlikely, but still a gynormous risk you can't take. And what if they have a flyer?
Your other option is to jump out the back, which can still be horribly risky, but much less so if you have a servoskull or enough open space. But what does that get you? You're likely much further from the enemy, and you're going to get shot up for a turn.
And of course, if you don't use it to transport something, you're wasting a large chunk of the points you spent on it.
The standard load-out I think has changed. I used to go with Multi-Melta and lascannon formation as making the most sense, but with new 6th ed rules (ability to fire 4 weapons) the Hurricane bolters with psybolts might make more sense, and of course if you're going to do that then you want to use the assault cannon (psycannon) instead. This will let you mess-up other flyers (most of whom are AV 10-11) really well.
Still, do I wish we had a simpler, cheaper, air-superiority fighter? Yeah, I do.
Interceptors
Upsides of 6th:
Hammer of Wrath, obviously.
Generally speaking, mobility is key. It allows you to determine who takes all the wounds.
Downsides of 6th:
Have I mentioned yet, all the extra dakka we're going to see in 6th?
Total Change: +1 OK, obviously jump infantry got a much needed boost in 6th ed. But, Interceptors always felt too delicate to me for their heavy points cost. Has that really changed? Actually, it's probably gotten worse. There's just going to be a lot more bolter shells and such zipping around now. You need some highly mobile elements in your list (and with a Grand Master, scoring) but I think I'd rather get mine in other ways. We'll see.
